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When he went to the store to buy it in April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police about a block away, and asked "how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Officers hauled Christian to the local precinct, where he showed police his identification, as well as his debit card and the receipt for the belt, the lawsuit says.

Police still believed Christian's identification was fake, and eventually called his bank, which verified it was his, according to the complaint. Christian, who has no prior arrests, was released.

He told NBC 4 New York that questions were racing through his mind while he went through the painful experience of being handcuffed and taken to a cell.

"Why me? I guess because I'm a young black man, and you know, people do a credit card scam so they probably thought that I was one of them," Christian said. "They probably think that black people don't have money like that."

He later returned the belt to Barneys because he says he "didn't want to have nothing to do with it."

He is suing the city and the luxury department store for unspecified damages as a result of "great physical and mental distress and humiliation."

Christian's attorney, Michael Palillo, told the Post, "His only crime was being a young black man."

Barneys said in a statement Wednesday that none of its employees was involved in any action with Christian other than the sale, and added that the store "has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination."

A black teenager is shopping for justice — claiming snooty Barneys staffers and New York City cops racially profiled him for credit card fraud after he bought a $349 belt.

Trayon Christian, 19, told the Daily News he filed a lawsuit after he was targeted by staffers at Barneys’ Madison Ave. flagship store and detained by police because they didn’t believe a young black man could possibly afford to buy such an expensive belt.

The fashion-forward teen, who lives with his mom in Corona, Queens, is studying engineering at the New York City College of Technology, where he had a work-study job.

Christian said his paycheck had just been direct deposited into his Chase bank account, so he went straight to Barneys on the afternoon of April 29 to buy the pricey Ferragamo belt with a silver buckle and a reversible black and white strap.

“I knew exactly what I wanted,” Christian said. He’d seen the belt on a lot of his favorite celebrities, including rapper Juelz Santana.

He said he’d browsed the ritzy rags at Barneys before but had never bought anything at the store.

“It was a quick trip. I gave them my debit card, I signed my name,” he said.

According to his lawsuit, the clerk asked Christian to show his ID, which he did.

“I showed my state ID,” he told The News.

MARCUS SANTOS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

After buying a designer belt at the flaship Barneys department store in New York, Trayon Christian was detained and then arrested by undercover cops who the teen says told him the card had to be fraudulent because he couldn't have afforded the Ferragamo accessory.

The clerk didn’t react as he signed for his purchase and left, he said.

But he got no more than a block from the store when two undercover NYPD detectives stopped him near E. 60th St., the lawsuit said.

“They said my card wasn’t real, it was fake. They said someone at Barneys called to report it,” said Christian.

The male detectives — whose names he never learned — asked to see ID and look in his bag, he said.

They also asked him if he worked, and where.

“I showed them my school ID and my driver’s license,” said Christian, who was 18 when the incident allegedly occurred.

So if the store wasn't involved, how did the police know he was a big spender and stop him outside of the store?
I hate liars. Admit what you did so we can get past it. The more you try to deflect, the angrier I become and the more damaging and involved the lie becomes. Let's just stop it here

the way i read the story it sounds like the store called the cops. if he was walking out with a bag the cop would have no idea what was in it unless they were alerted.

when i worked in retail in high school we'd have to call mall security and tell them exactly what we saw the person take so that they could call them out on the specific item (not just say hey i think you took something)

Quoting JMmama:

Why sue Barney's? Were they involved? It sounds to me like it was cops on the street. I do think the cops were discriminatory.

I want to know who contacted the police or if the cop just saw the kid with the belt.

I'm not sure if this was a race issue, age issue or both but regardless it was very inappropriate. The kids ID and receipt should have been enough and he should have never been cuffed and detained. Smh!

I know lots of young people who saved and bought frivolous, expensive items. It's what young adults do. They want that item they never could have as a kid.

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